It’s the FA Cup or nothing for Arsenal

Jack Wilshere’s injury is the latest black mark on an increasingly second half of the season for Arsenal.

After Everton on Saturday Arsenal travel to Munich to face Bayern in a Champions League Round of 16 second leg having lost 2-0 at home, before returning to England to travel to London rivals Tottenham and Chelsea for successive away fixtures. Wilshere and Ramsey may continue their recovery at Cheltenham 2014 next week but there’s not going to be much respite for the Gunners elsewhere

Swansea at home is the ‘easy’ one on the list and it’s followed by a home game to runaway Man City and an away game to Everton on Sunday 6th April.

By this time next month, Arsenal could have beaten all comers and top the table. The more likely outcome though is that they would end the season as they always do – looking over their shoulder and hoping Tottenham and Everton don’t catch them in fourth place.

Speaking of Everton – Roberto Martinez’s team is a significant hurdle Arsenal will face in their quest to win a trophy this season. The Champions League is almost a moot point and the Premier League will require super-human effort (although beating Man City towards the end of March would definitely help).

Beat Everton, and Arsenal only have to hope that Wigan can pull another cup upset to match the one from last May and Arsenal will be left with the likes of Hull, Sunderland, Charlton, Wigan and Sheffield United to compete with for the FA Cup.

Arsenal’s last trophy was the 2005 FA Cup, the last of a successful decade of winning trophies – 9 years later, the FA Cup can be the start of a new era of trophy-winning years.